Synergistic triad of crisis management: leadership, knowledge management and organizational learning

Abstract

Purpose The prevalence of instability and crises in organizational ecosystems seems to be on the increase, with an upward trend in the occurrence of, for example, natural disasters, such as tornadoes in America, bushfires in Australia and the widespread outbreak of diseases, e.g., Covid-19. As contexts of crisis increase in frequency, the ability of organizations to adapt and effectively respond to crises has become a key necessity for organizational survival and continuity. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the repercussions of crises may be curtailed through a multidimensional crisis management approach. Design/methodology/approach This paper applies a narrative literature review and concept mapping to synthesize and establish relationships between the literature in the domains of leadership, knowledge management, learning and contexts of crisis. The output of this methodological orientation is the Integrated Crisis Management Framework, presenting a conceptualized overview of the symbiotic and intertwined manner through which leadership, knowledge management and learning contribute towards effective crisis management. Findings According to the analysis and the conceptual underpinnings of this paper, in contexts of crisis, leadership is generally responsible for aggregating crisis management strategies and establishing employee motivation. Knowledge management, on the other hand, provides the infrastructure necessary for calculated yet rapid decision-making. Similarly, in times of crisis, learning is a prerequisite for the development of a “learningful” organization, which contributes towards crisis management by serving as the organization's “memory” – where lessons learned from previous crises suffice to guide future crisis response. Originality/value The literature in crisis management reveals that existing crisis management models and frameworks generally consider crisis from a unidimensional perspective, neglecting to account for the multifaceted nature of crises, and the numerous attributes necessary to overcome contexts of crisis. To address this gap in the literature, this paper proposes a multidimensional conceptualization of crisis management through combining three core elements, including leadership, learning and knowledge management. The novelty of this paper is an Integrated Crisis Management Framework, and eight empirical propositions, which act as an impetus for future research.

Health-care leaders’ experiences of the competencies required for crisis management during COVID-19: a systematic review of qualitative studies

“…The internal perspective is concerned with how organizational structures and systems are coordinated to understand, minimize or prevent a crises, while the external perspective considers how outward coordination and communication can help organizations to prevent, solve and move on from crises (Bundy et al , 2017). During a crisis, leaders are responsible for simultaneously managing numerous co-dependent tasks relating to personnel, organizational learning and knowledge management (Buhagiar and Anand, 2021).…”

Strategic responses to crisis: a review and synthesis of promising research directions

“…Several previous studies suggest that the unusual and complicated nature of a crisis may jeopardize organizational survival (Buhagiar and Anand, 2021). Thus, the analysis in this paper provides three critical revival processes for crisis response, which will assist practitioners in evaluating their crisis response strategy.…”

Considering the Organizational Effectiveness of Maritime Sector SMEs in Indonesia from the Perspective of Knowledge Management, Entrepreneurship Orientation, and Organizational Learning

“…On the other hand, knowledge management is seen as the management of the process of creating, storing, accessing, and distributing the intellectual resources of an organization. This is reinforced by the results of research conducted by Buhagiar and Anand (2021) that in a crisis condition knowledge management provides the necessary infrastructure for calculated but fast decision making, while organizational learning is a prerequisite for the development of learning organizations, which contribute to crisis management by serving as organizational memory. Therefore, it is known that the influence of knowledge management on organizational learning.…”

“…Regarding organizational learning, Antunes and Pinheiroc (2020) research found that there is a relationship between knowledge management and organizational learning. This can be seen in crisis conditions where knowledge management provides the necessary infrastructure for calculated but fast decision making, while organizational learning is a prerequisite for the development of learning organizations (Buhagiar and Anand, 2021). Knowledge management was first conceptualized in the 1990s by Drucker.…”